There's no humor like black humor

Bruce Tinsley declares that this week, he "will threaten an African American!!" Throw in a silent panel and then the revelation that it's all a desparate cry for attention and well, it's just kind of sad, really.

Coming soon: Yelling fire in a crowded theater to get the media's attention.

Use the comments thread to predict just who he'll be threatening. My guess is Barack Obama.

Be a glutton for punishment: Read the strip

You are what you eat

Crazy illogical people will complain because Bruce says that Chinese people eat dogs. Sane logical people will complain because Bruce can't produce anything remotely resembling a citation.

Personally, if you're going to get upset about eating dogs, then you should be even more upset about eating pigs. Hell, you look into it all, and you'd be a vegetarian. I'd be a vegetarian if it weren't for that whole not eating meat thing.

But from Bruce's perspective, the most important thing is not whether it's morally appropriate to eat dogs (or other meat), but to defend himself against claims of being politically incorrect because he wants to say that Chinese people eat dogs. Never mind, that in the cursory research that I did using Bruce's own sources, I found that dog is far more popular in Korea and Vietnam. It's kind of like talking about Cubans eating tacos and enchiladas. Yes, you can find those foods in Cuba, but that's not where they're popular.

No illustration today, I was going to use that scene from Hannibal, but when I found a picture, it started to put me off eating anything.

Added bonus, there's a new little ad box in the upper left corner of the page. Based on the network, you can expect this to be an ad listing from some web cartoon or other. I was going to make a snarky comment about how they were paying good money, as much as nothing per day to appear in that space, but there's apparently already some competition to appear on these pages, so check them out and give them some bang for their buck (they pay to appear, not for the clicks).

Even more added bonus. From the Wichita Eagle:

A reader asked about a new stomach virus going around: "Did God make it, or did it evolve?" Neither. It was caused by President Bush and "Mallard Fillmore."

You know you're in trouble when you're a conservative duck and you've lost Kansas (dot com).

Be a glutton for punishment: Read the strip

PC? That's so 1992

I was in college during the rise of the concept of political correctness, for the few years before the term had changed in meaning from "language that's not racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive" to "anything that Rush Limbaugh disagrees with and why can't we just go back to the days of minstrel shows anyway because they were harmless fun". So, I feel qualified to say that using Rex Morgan to play an asian kid would in fact be far less PC than would drawing the asian kid. That is, assuming that you can draw the asian kid at all, which, as we know from the long hard experience of reading MF, is a dangerous assumption to make about Tinsley's artistic abilities.

But if Tinsley had anything funny to say about childhood obesity in China, then a depiction of an asian youth would not be viewed with outrage (although part of that would be shock at people reading a MF with a joke in it), so Bruce, get over yourself.

So I'm guessing that this is going to be fat week. I suppose I should start researching some solid stuff about nutrition. Or I could just tell you to read this book.

Be a glutton for punishment: Read the strip